In this first session of the 2026 Innovators Club, we explore the housing cooperative model with Pere Llorach, a researcher, lecturer and engineer specializing in the intersection between industrial design, environmental sustainability and the circular economy.
Why the housing cooperative model?
Housing cooperatives are a non-profit model that allows a group of people with a shared goal -accessing housing- to do so through self-development. This system removes intermediaries and ensures that the final cost of housing corresponds to the actual construction cost, without third parties speculating on the project.
Moreover, within the legal framework in which they operate, cooperatives function in a democratic and participatory way. Members take decisions collectively and can participate in aspects such as the size of the homes, costs, materials or the selection of the architectural team. This allows residents to have much greater decision-making power over the project.
Cooperatives can also serve as a foundation on which other dimensions can be incorporated into the residential project. For example, they can promote more sustainable housing or create spaces that encourage neighbourhood interaction and social cohesion among people sharing the same building.
The cooperative model can be understood as a flexible structure through which different layers of social and environmental impact can be integrated.
What social and environmental impacts can a housing cooperative generate?
From a social perspective, housing cooperatives challenge the individualism that often characterizes contemporary societies. Collective decision-making requires trust and the willingness to build shared projects.
This process can help overcome perspectives based on mistrust or fear of living together. In fact, much of the world we have built – buildings, technologies and knowledge – is the result of collaboration.
Housing cooperatives bring this collaborative logic back into the field of housing and encourage more connected ways of living. They help recognize that the people who live around us also have needs and that it is possible to build relationships of mutual support.
In addition, many cooperatives include shared spaces for residents and, in some cases, these spaces are also open to the neighbourhood or village. This encourages social activity and creates links between the project and its surrounding community.
From an environmental perspective, the cooperative model also offers interesting opportunities. Because the project is developed collectively, sustainability criteria can be incorporated into the design of the housing – well-insulated buildings, efficient energy systems or the use of more natural materials.
In this way, housing cooperatives can become references for new ways of building and living.
Let’s talk about your project, La Tremolina. How did it emerge?
La Tremolina is a rural housing cooperative project with quite distinctive characteristics. It is a small project with five housing units that also includes a central courtyard with a vegetable garden and land for other activities.
The project emerged from a group of neo-rural residents who had moved to the Pallars region and were looking for a different way of living. The idea was to combine private spaces – small homes with a kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedroom – with shared spaces where residents could spend time together and organize activities.
The project responded to the desire to live in community without giving up private living space. At the same time, the aim was for the people sharing the building not to be strangers but part of a community based on trust, mutual support and care. This type of coexistence allows people to share everyday moments, support each other at different stages of life – such as raising children – or simply create closer networks of relationships.
The project also includes a territorial dimension. The people involved asked themselves what they could contribute to the territory that welcomed them. For this reason, from the beginning some of the project’s spaces were designed to be open to the village, either to host activities or to create meeting spaces with the local community. Over time, all these ideas gradually took shape until they formed what La Tremolina is today.
What lessons and challenges does this case bring?
One of the main lessons from projects like La Tremolina is that there is not only one way of living. The forms of housing we are used to often respond to social habits or conventions that we rarely question. Experiences like this help broaden our imagination and show that other models of living together are possible.
However, living in community also involves challenges. It requires energy, dialogue and the willingness to reach agreements with others. This involves an important learning process in terms of emotional management and conflict resolution. There will not always be consensus, and it will be necessary to talk, listen and find shared solutions.
In reality, these processes are present in many other areas of everyday life – work relationships, friendships or partnerships. Community projects simply make more visible the need to develop collective tools to manage coexistence.
For many people, this effort also brings significant benefits – a stronger support network, more companionship and a deeper sense of community. In this sense, projects like La Tremolina also represent an exercise in overcoming fears and daring to imagine different ways of living.
Can shared spaces such as a communal laundry change the way we relate to one another?
Shared spaces play an important role in building relationships. In La Tremolina there are several shared elements, such as a washing machine and an oven used by nine people. This system has clear advantages from a resource perspective – fewer appliances are needed, less energy is consumed and less space is required.
But it also has a social impact. Using these shared spaces generates everyday encounters between the people who live in the project. Even brief interactions help strengthen social bonds and make other members of the community more visible.
When all services are located within the private space of the home, everyday life can more easily become isolated. In contrast, shared spaces create opportunities for interaction and help break this isolation. Even very simple interactions can play an important role in fostering social dynamism within a community.
How do you think we will wash our clothes in 2040?
It is difficult to give a single answer. Different models will probably coexist. Some people will continue using laundromats with industrial machines, others will have their own washing machines at home and some communities will adopt shared systems.
From an efficiency perspective, shared systems make a lot of sense, although it is not certain that everyone will be willing to adopt them.
What does seem likely is that washing machine technology will continue evolving to reduce water, energy and detergent consumption. The debate around microplastics will probably also become more important. This may lead to improvements in washing machine filters, but it also raises broader questions about the materials used to produce clothing.
Many garments today are made from synthetic fibers derived from petroleum, such as polyester, which release microplastics during washing. For this reason, the challenge is not only technological but also related to how we produce and consume clothing. In any case, the future will likely combine technological innovation with new models of shared resource use.
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